SEAN SIMMERS, The Patriot-News“As far as our relationship with Chef Irvine, he’s really hard to describe,” Dodge City owner Doug Krick said. “It’s hard to separate the television Robert from the off-camera Robert.”

Doug and Debbie Krick almost shut down their 30-year-old Dodge City restaurant in Harrisburg.

That’s how slow business was at the steak house known for its reasonable prices, traditional American menu and Wild West decor.

The couple was losing money. They tried increasing their advertising, mailings and coupons to lure diners.

“We just kept pumping money into this place, taking money out of our savings. We were working for nothing,” Doug Krick said.

As a last-ditch effort last fall, the couple applied to be on the Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible,” featuring celebrity chef Robert Irvine. The show rescues failing restaurants by revamping the menu and decor in 48 hours using $10,000.

Dodge City was selected from more than 700 restaurants across the nation. The episode airs at 10 tonight.

“I was thrilled because this is something I really wanted. I wanted [the restaurant] to be updated. I wanted the new decor and the menu changes. We needed help. We needed a professional to come in and fix things and that’s really what they did,” Debbie Krick said.

On Tuesday, dinner was slow as a few diners took seats. The restaurant industry is traditionally quiet around the July 4 holiday.

Soft music played as servers attended to diners, from kids eating chicken fingers and french fries to a couple in a booth sharing a land-and-sea steak and lobster tail entree to a group from the Allison Hill Lions Club.

Gone was Dodge City’s dark wood and heavy Wild West theme in the main two dining rooms. It’s a lighter, brighter reincarnation of the former restaurant.

Many regulars such as Marney Lappley of Camp Hill, who stopped for dinner, said she has a soft spot for the pre-makeover days.

“It had a personality. If you were in here before, it was Wild West. It was a place you could go and not duplicate it,” she said.

Server Rochelle Dillman, who had a night off and was dining with her husband, Dan, said change is good.

“I think it has been a positive change for them. The old way wasn’t working,” she said.

Some diners have been complimentary about the new menu and look. Others have been turned off by the a la carte selection and higher prices.

On PennLive.com, one diner concluded, “I like the reduced menu ... When you want a good steak, you go to a quality local steak house. I’ve been back a few times and will definitely go back many more!”

Another was critical, saying, “Personally, we think it ruined one of our favorite restaurants ... they eliminated a lot of our favorite dishes and took that good family restaurant feel and made it feel like a bad attempt to compete with those designer restaurants on 2nd Street.”

For three days in March, crew members from Shooters Post & Transfer, a Philadelphia production company, along with Irvine, chefs, decorators and volunteers descended on the restaurant at Paxton and Cameron streets.

The restaurant’s rear banquet room was transformed into a makeshift television studio. The Kricks were instructed not to leave.

“They pretty much take over the restaurant. It becomes their restaurant,” Doug Krick said.

One of the show’s decorators, Taniya Nayak, revamped Dodge City’s outdated, dark-wood decor with its knickknack-packed walls into a modern Wild West theme.

The look is brighter, with light pine walls accented with cowboy pictures, wagon wheels, longhorns and horseshoes. The staff wear plaid and checkered Western shirts.

The restaurant’s staff and regulars are buzzing about the show.

“I’m very excited to watch it,” said Cherie Christine, a server. “It was cool.”

The Kricks are nervous about how the show will portray them and their staff. Irvine is known as an honest — sometimes brutal — British chef who doesn’t pull any punches.

In the show’s first season, he took a sledge hammer to a restaurant’s wall and told an owner his kitchen was filthy. He called the crabcakes at Dodge City “rubbish.”

“As far as our relationship with Chef Irvine, he’s really hard to describe,” Doug Krick said. “It’s hard to separate the television Robert from the off-camera Robert.”

In one scene, Doug Krick said he was instructed — against his will — to wear a sheriff’s costume.

“[Chef Irvine] came in and just burst out laughing. It was very humiliating,” Doug Krick said. “As soon as he came in, he started in on how bad the restaurant looked and how bad we were.”

It was an intense, emotional process, but the Kricks said it was worth the upheaval.

April was Dodge City’s best month ever. Debbie Krick said they’ve seen many new faces.

“The whole idea behind this was our clientele was older senior citizens who were used to getting the same meals. Where we were failing is we didn’t get new people in here,” Doug Krick said.

Marc Summers, a Food Network celebrity and the show’s producer, told the Kricks that viewers will drive from out of state to eat at restaurants shown on the network, and they should expect a bump in business.

“I’m very optimistic. So far so good. We’ll see what happens after the show. I think we are going to be fine,” Debbie Krick said.

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